With the growth of technology, individuals today are more connected than they ever before. It is common for a single individual to carry one or more mobile devices at any time. However, with multiple devices, there are challenges when users are interacting with one another. One such challenge occurs when users are submitting information to each other.
There is a growing need to send documents via mobile device and between mobile devices and their users, but current solutions are often not as capable as desired. Current solutions include portable storage solutions, and Bump™ (offered by Bump Technologies, Mountain View, Calif.). It is not feasible for users to carry a portable storage device at all times. Although users can send emails, they cannot easily refer to previously sent or received information seamlessly. Emails may be lost, or become hard to find or track. There are no APIs to build on top of emails for automation. Additionally, when individuals are in a face-to-face professional or corporate setting, none of these solutions are viable solutions. Individuals might not wish to Bump™ phones in a corporate setting.
Current solutions are further limited in their ability to instantly share documents and comments among users. For example, Recsolu™ provides recruiting software to universities. The software aids with management of resumes and organization of career fairs, etc. but does not provide instant transfer of resumes or other documents in real-time from any device to any device between users. There is latency in the Recsolu™ system because a recruiter must first scan the applicant's QR code when the applicant is in front of the recruiter, the QR code is then forwarded to the server over the internet, and the server processes the QR code and then sends the applicant's profile which then allows the recruiter to view the applicant's profile. The resume or profile information cannot be sent in advance to the particular recruiter by the applicant.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a student user's perspective of the prior art career fair experience. Traditionally, students wait in lines to visit booths of various employers. A hard copy resume is handed to the recruiter once the student gets a turn in line. The face-to-face conversation with the recruiter does not last long; perhaps 60 seconds. This waiting and resume-handing can be repeated more than 15 times at different employer booths. After the career fair experience, the student must wait for any call-backs, sometimes for weeks and potentially months.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an employer's trip to a university career event with only the prior art available. From the employer's perspective, the traditional career fair has some areas for improvement (pain points). The employer must form a recruiting team and plan the physical trip (in this example, to a university). The booth must be set up early in the day as the students are lining up. The recruiters then spend the day steadily interviewing students and receiving resumes many times over. By the end of the day, students' faces and the impressions they conveyed tend to blur. Recruiters may write notes by hand on resumes to record impressions as they experience them. After the career fair, hundreds of resumes are carried back to the company. The resumes must be reviewed again, and each candidate re-evaluated and classified. For example, resumes might be grouped as “yes”, “maybe” or “no”. From the “Yes” and “Maybe” lists, a finalized list for on-campus interviews is generated.
There is a need for a system and method for real-time collaborative document review and transfer including the use of mobile devices.